


Cutting Loose

by Arkadien



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Compelled relationship, Dubious Consent, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 20:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7655698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arkadien/pseuds/Arkadien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt and Elena have to be together. They don't know why and they don't know how it works but both know that they definitely don't want to be in a relationship together. They leave home in a search for meaning and wind up rediscovering a world that they were made to forget.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cutting Loose

**Author's Note:**

> Set season threeish and immediately goes wildly off canon. The dubious consent refers to Elena and Matt being compelled to be together. It's brief and mostly non explicit. Please feel free to message me if you have any concerns.

Elena's lying in bed, concentrating on her breathing. It's late. She should be asleep, cuddled up next to Matty. She has a midterm in the morning and after that she has to go to work. But she can't breathe. She doesn't know what's wrong. Nothing bad happened today; nothing bad ever happens. But sometimes everything feels wrong and claustrophobic and she just wants to scream.

Beside her, Matt shifts and then rolls over. He has circles under his blue eyes. It comforts her to know that she's not alone in this, even though it’s a selfish feeling. He feels the wrongness in their tiny universe of two too.

“I know this isn't working.” He sighs. “But the trouble is that I don't think I'll feel better if I leave. At least this way I know that you feel it too.” She nods and curls closer. Sometimes she doesn't think she's real at all, goes through her day feeling completely numb. He helps, but he also feeds the problem.

“I love you Matt but I love you as a friend, not as anything more. I'm missing something but I can't think of what I'm missing.”

He thinks about that. “I think I loved you as more than a friend once.” He says slowly, feeling his way around the words. “But that stopped eventually and I don't know when that was or why I feel like I need to love you.”

They both lay there for a while, thinking about that. Then she whispers to him, close like a secret. “Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy.”

He whispers back. “Me too.” There's nothing else to say. They lay there in silence until dawn.

~*~

She goes to work. Her and Matt might be having some sort of existential crisis but the bills still have to be paid. She spends her shift in a haze, poking at the vague areas of her brain. It's hard, her brain keeps trying to redirect her into thinking about something else. She wishes that not trusting her thoughts was a new feeling.

She clocks out and starts the walk across campus, towards her car. A bright banner catches her eye and she reflexively reads it. “Donate Blood Today!” She manages to vomit into some bushes instead of the concrete but it's a close call. She dry heaves a couple more times before standing back up. She spends the rest of the walk looking at the ground.

Matt's made dinner. They sit there in silence, eating spaghetti, both dreading bed time. They dawdle over the dishes and Elena takes her time with her nighttime beauty routine. She's not eighteen anymore, and although twenty two isn't ancient, she needs to take better care of her skin. Finally, she slides into bed next to Matt. They lay there for a second and then he turns and kisses her.  
His kiss doesn't feel like anything she's dreamed of. Sometimes she dreams of dark haired men who kiss her like she's the only thing that matters. In her dreams, Elena's happy and floaty while she kisses them. This isn't like that. His kiss is nice but it feels more like desperation and flesh instead of transcendent happiness. He mouths “I love you” into her skin but they both know that it's more of something that he has to say rather than something that he says because he can't contain the totality of his feelings for her. When it's over, their bodies and the weird thing in their minds are satisfied but they are both all too aware that it isn't what they want.

She rolls to face him and he matches her until they're two quotation marks in bed, heads curled together and genitals curled away. “I'm tired of this.” She complains.

“This, us?” He asks. “Or this, everything?” He curls a hand down the line of her body idly.

“This everything.” She says decisively. “Today I walked past a blood donation sign and threw up. I don't like feeling like I'm not me or like I'm me with all the important parts taken out.”

“I get that.” He says. His eyes gleam curiously in the dark. “How do you want to fix it?”

She thinks. It feels crazy but being sane hasn't exactly helped her. “How attached are you to the idea of college? What if we just left? Like entirely. Tried new things, went on a road trip, got the hell out of dodge.” She can feel herself getting excited. “We only live once Matty and I'm tired of feeling like my life is already over and I'm dead. Let's do something unexpected. It might make us feel better and its better than this boredom.”

He snorted. “Thanks for that.” She starts to apologize and then recognizes the teasing gleam in his eyes. It's been a while since she saw it. He pulls his laptop into bed with them and they google dropping out, who they need to talk to, what they need to do. They put up a craigslist ad for his car, too ancient to be really reliable and she emails work to let them know that she's quitting. With every internet search they feel invigorated, like new possibilities are floating effervescently in their blood. Each idea leads to a new one.

Within a week, they're closing the door to their empty apartment. The furniture has been sold, their belongings whittled down into what will fit into a single four door car. They've dropped out of college, leaving behind their impressive scholarships and grants that have given them a full ride. In any other circumstance, they would be ruining their lives. They know that they're finally fixing them.

~*~

They decided on their first destination at two in the morning. They both agreed that they want to go north first. New York has always been a city of sparkling possibilities, thoroughly modern and always reinventing itself. History makes them uncomfortable for obvious reasons so they go someplace completely anonymous and new.

The first day they're there Elena walks into a diner that has a hiring sign in the window. Her smiles and obvious good mood get her a job. Matt finds work at a construction company, selling his muscle. As soon as they get their paychecks they move into a tiny little apartment in a bad neighborhood. It's peaceful. There's a baby upstairs that cries every night and the couple next door are always fighting but it's something that isn't tied to MattandElena, small town sweethearts. 

They're still tied together, can't go a week without reaffirming their “love”, but it's not so bad. There's a bit more breathing space now. They used to go home every weekend and help out around Mystic Falls. They left that and their phones behind. They've officially cut themselves loose from their old lives. Elena had thought that it'd be hard when Matt had proposed it but it was surprisingly painless. Jeremy hadn't needed her for a long time and all Matt had was his mom. Bonnie and Caroline and all their other friends had melted away after graduation. If she thinks about it too hard, she can't remember why. She doesn't worry about it too much. In the grand scheme of things, disappearing friends are the most normal aspect of their lives.

Two months in, she checks her facebook. There's twelve messages from Jeremy, two from volunteer groups in Mystic Falls and, weirdly, one from Bonnie. All want to know where she is. She clicks open Bonnie's message and thinks for a few minutes. “Fuck it.” She says out loud. If she doesn't engage then she'll never know. Where were you after graduation? Bonnie sees it but she doesn't reply. Elena deletes her facebook the next day.

Spring turns to summer and New York gets hot, hot, hot. Matt sweats buckets at his job and spends the evening eating ravenously. Elena wears shorts into work and enjoys the feeling of men staring at her legs. She can't do anything about it, her and Matt figured that out early on, but it's nice to be appreciated.

They start getting restless around mid-July. New York is wonderful but they're feeling cluttered and trapped again. They repeat the process, giving notice and selling their belongings. Purging this way feels good. They don't have passports yet so they decide to just move states. Matt chooses Washington and they pack their car and go.

~*~

Seattle feels a lot like New York. New York delights in being large and in your face and Seattle takes pride in being different and the hipster capital of America but they're both big cities and there are some inevitable similarities. This time, Elena decides to be a barista. Matt gets a job doing some kind of mind numbing paperwork.

The first thing they do is apply for passports. Then, they sit down and make a list of all the cities in the US that they want to visit. It's not a very long list. They want to go to LA, Vegas, New Orleans, Orlando and Chicago. They don't particularly want to live in Orlando so they agree that they'll curve down, spend a week there and then go up to Chicago. From there, they'll choose their first international destination. It's nice to have a plan.

Their paperwork takes six weeks to process but by the end they both have passports that are good for ten years. Their funds are running low by this time so they stay a little longer. Elena turns twenty three and Matt turns twenty four by the time they feel secure enough to move cities.

~*~

LA is where everything changes. Elena loves LA, loves the nightlife, the heat and the staggering narcissism. She goes out almost every night. Matt grumbles but she can tell that he likes the ocean and he loves the food. They live on different schedules. He wakes up early to surf and she sleeps in late so she'll have enough energy to party. LA is where they feel the most alive and like themselves.

During the early hours of the morning, she curls into his arms and fits their bodies together. “Matty,” She whispers. He nods and kisses her quiet. They have sex but it doesn't have the unhappiness or the desperation of before. There's still something compelling them to do it but the traveling has let them grow a bit. When he rocks into her and moans in her ear, she clenches around him and kisses up the line of her neck. They love each other, even if it's not the way that they're supposed to. He spills into her and she makes faces at him until he recovers enough to lick it out of her. It's fun and sweet but it'll never be more than that.

LA is also where they start experimenting. They know that they can't have sex without the other but they never bothered to test it further than that. LA is the perfect city to figure this out in. Elena and Matt go out one night and bring home a curvy blond woman that Matt took a liking to. Matt fucks her in their bed while Elena watches. The next night, Elena rides a dark-haired boy until he can't take it anymore. They exchange smug smirks over his head. The feeling of triumph makes them giddy and they go a round while he sleeps. It's the second time they've managed to circumvent this curse.

LA is also where they meet Jack. Elena brings him home one night and he manages to outlast her. It turns into a pattern. They like him. He's laid back and good natured. He has a bit of a bad boy look to him and he surfs with Matt every morning. Gradually, it turns into them bringing Jack home every night. They have fun with him and he's a good fit for their life.

It takes him two months before he asks. “Not that I'm complaining,” He drawls one night. “But why exactly are you two together and why does Matt always watch when its obvious that he gets nothing out of it?” They tense. “Oookay. I suppose we don't have to talk about it.” But he starts twirling his ring around his finger, one of his more endearing nervous habits. Elena reaches out and take his hand, stilling his nervous fingers.

“It's-” Elena stumbles. “It's not like- Matt's okay with everything. I'm not coercing him or anything. I- It's just hard to explain.” She darts a helpless glance at Matt.

“Try me.” Jack says, turning over and sitting up on his elbows. He glances between them, his dark gaze blatantly curious. “I've seen a lot of the world. Maybe I can help.”

“It's going to sound crazy.” Matt warns. He props himself up on one elbow. “Like supernatural mindfuck levels of crazy.”

“Like I've said,” Jack reiterates, dark eyes intense. “I've seen a lot of things.”

That's what convinces them. Their confusion and fear spills out in a deluge as they try to explain the vagueness in words for the first time. They talk about being together and feeling like they have to be together. They talk about not remembering much about junior and senior year and that what they do remember is weirdly patchwork. Elena talks about feeling like someone's missing and how she can't stand blood donation vans and Matt talks about how his sister mysteriously died. They both talk about how their friends completely disappeared after graduation.

He listens to them as the sky turns rose and then gold and then bright and blinding blue. When they finally run out of words he collapses forward into his pillow and groans. “Jesus Christ, someone fucked you guys up. What the fuuuuuuck?”

That's when they find out about vampires and they finally learn what's been done to them. Compulsion. It's an ugly word. Matt asks him if he can undo it and he tries but whatever compelled them is much stronger than him. “There is one sure fire way that you can get your memories and your free will back.” Jack mentions.

He's clearly reluctant to talk about it. They press him anyway. “I wouldn't mention it but it's your choice and it's not fair to make you deal with this bullshit for the rest of your life. And I know we aren't the forever type of love. I'm not looking for it and I don't think you are either. But if I turned you, it'd break the compulsion and you'd get your memories back.”

He tells them more, warns them about the dangers of being a vampire. They don't care. Elena thinks that if this had been a year ago Matt might have had more hangups about it but they've both figured out that mortality is only going to give them unhappiness. They can't remember who did this to them and if they can't remember then they have no hope of asking them to break it. Plus, it's unlikely that whoever put the compulsion on them would break it anyway. They say yes to him within the hour. They never thought they'd be free of this and now that there's a chance they want it.

~*~

Jack briefly leaves them to go get enchanted lapis lazuli rings for them. It apparently lets vampires go out in daylight and he has a witch friend. They curl up together on their balcony and watch the street. “We're not crazy.” She says at last.

“We're not crazy.” He echoes.

~*~

They agree to turn Matt first. He remembers more than Elena does and he's always been steadier. He can help Jack if she gives them any trouble. Jack feeds him his blood and then snaps his neck. Elena feels better almost immediately.

“It worked!” She gasps, clasping her hands on either side of her neck. “It worked. I don't feel like I need Matt anymore.” She feels like breaking down and sobbing but she compartmentalizes the feeling and shoves it aside to deal with after Matt wakes up. She snuggles into Jack and waits.

Matt wakes up angry. “Those-” He's so angry that he's speechless and stuttering. “Elena, they-” Jack presses a blood bag into his hands and he sinks his mouth into it. His eyes are cold and bitter. She's scared. Matt finishes the blood bag and gathers her into his arms. “Elena,” His voice cracks. “Elena, I'm so sorry. I wish I could tell you not to do it but I know that you have to.” He kisses her forehead. “Elena, they took so much from us.”

He doesn't say anything else, watching with thin lips and tense eyes as Elena drinks from Jack's wrist. Technically, the compulsion is broken. Elena doesn't feel the need to be with Matt anymore. She could just leave now and go her own way. But now there's a new compulsion driving her. She need to know. She never feels the snap but she dies afraid. She wakes up destroyed. “Matty-” She sobs. He's wrapped around her in an instant. Jack presses a blood bag into her hand and watches over them while they grieve.

They end up staying with Jack for five years. They explain it all to him: Mystic falls, Elena and the Salvatore brothers, the Originals and the deal they struck, their own helplessness. Elena describes the boxy little hospital room that the Originals had kept her in for weeks while they slowly siphoned her blood. She describes waking up over and over again, scared out of her mind but unable to get up and escape. They'd compelled her to stay in bed and when they came back they compelled her to eat and to be good. She'd lost four weeks of her life while they treated her like their personal blood donor. By the end, she'd just wanted to die but they took her back home and made her stand still before taking her memories. All her memories. She'd forgotten the Salvatores. She'd forgotten Caroline and everything that had happened in Mystic Falls. At the last moment, when she was still vaguely coherent she'd begged him to leave her something. He left her Matt. Of course, even that wasn't a kindness. Just part of the deal.

Matt explains the deal. The Salvatores knew they couldn't beat Klaus or his family. Everyone knew that. They'd been prepared to try but it never came to that. At the last moment, Klaus came to them and offered them a devil's bargain. He'd get four weeks to drain Elena of the blood that was the key to new hybrids. At the end of that four weeks, he'd compel her to forget everything and leave Mystic Falls and everyone in it forever. None of them would be harmed and Elena wouldn't remember a thing. He'd compel her to be happy with Matt. They took the deal. “I guess they felt guilty afterwards.” He said bitterly. “Maybe they thought you'd be happier without them. Maybe their guilt got the better of them.” He shrugs. “I don't really care.” It all comes out and Jack listens to it sympathetically. He's a great friend and they love him dearly but he's right. They don't love him in the forever sense. In the end, they drive away with new phones and new hungers.

~*~

Las Vegas isn't as fun as they thought it'd be. It's tinier than they thought and the Strip is great but everything else kind of pales in comparison. They leave after a week. They stop in New Orleans but Elena sees Klaus on a street corner one day and they get in their car and disappear immediately. They've both started dosing themselves with tiny amounts of vervain but it's not enough to overcome an Original and both want to be absolutely compulsion proof before they meet up with anyone from their past.

By this point, they're beginning to think that they're cursed. It's almost tempting to give up on Orlando but the third Harry Potter section has just opened up and Matt cons Jack into sending them special advance tickets for Elena's birthday. They ride the rides at least four times and Elena buys a completely ridiculous Weasley jumper that's far too big for her. It's her favorite item of clothing. They end up staying for six months. It seems ridiculous but they arrived near Halloween so they stayed for that event and then there was a concert that Matt wanted to go to and then Christmas... They stay in fancy hotels and buy season tickets to all the parks using money that they steal off of tourists. They're careful to restrict their pickpocketing to wealthy looking patrons and never anyone with a child under ten. They both mutually agree to never compel anyone. Elena and Matt have never drank from a human being and they don't really intend to.

Eventually they both get tired of the resort town though so they book a plane to Chicago. Chicago is fun. It's a different type of city than New York or LA. The people are relatively friendly and active and there's a great museum scene but some of the pretentiousness is cut out of it. They mutually decide to go back to school and fill out all the needed forms. This time, Elena majors in Creative Writing and Matt goes for a biology degree. Now that they know they have forever, some of the stress is taken out of it. They float through classes. Both get jobs. Matt works at a vet's office and Elena works as a receptionist for a small office.

Most importantly, Chicago is the city where they start dating again. Elena remembers loving the Salvatore brothers but she also remembers them forcing her to give her blood to Klaus and she remembers them being okay with a plan that took away her free will, her memories and her own bodily autonomy. Fuck the Salvatores, fuck the Originals and fuck everyone who went along with this plan. She uses and abuses a series of dark haired, classically handsome men in retaliation before she forces herself to forget them and starts dating a lovely business man named Collin. He's slightly older than her but he's sweet and he buys her pretty things without expecting her to belong to him.

Matt doesn't have as many hangups. He remembers having a flirtation with Rebecca but overall he transitions into single man a lot more graciously than she does. He mostly concerns himself with the animals at the vet's and pretty soon they own a wobbly kitten that they name Lanie and a snooty Siamese named Draco.

Elena writes a short story about a girl who gives up too much in one of her senior classes and her teacher asks her to submit it to the university publishing house. By this time, Elena has a different name so she edits it and sends it in. It has a limited press release but a couple of people in her major read it and compliment her on it. One classmate says it’s not realistic because people are inherently selfish and she walks away laughing. She writes more stories but she’s still scared to tell the one that’s festering at her core. Later. She thinks. After all, she has all the time in the world. 

Matt focuses more on student life. He graduates with a 3.3 and he’s the president of the Student Affairs Commission. Elena graduates with honors and a growing reputation as a short story writer. Matt decides to start working at a nearby nonprofit while Elena pursues her graduate degree. She publishes a small collection of stories but otherwise her two years go by uneventfully. She graduates, breaks up with Collin and turns in her two weeks. Matt wants to stay another year or two so she decides to start work on a novel. It’s a little different from her university work. It’s obvious from the start of it that the novel is going to be genre fiction so she doesn’t even worry about it. She’s mostly just playing, still trying to find her voice. It ends up being a novel about teen werewolves. It’s close enough to real life but just enough removed that it won’t set off any alarm bells in the supernatural community. She sends it in, mostly as a joke, but she gets a call from Harper Collins one day and just like that she’s a teen romance best seller. She wrote under a pen name and her picture isn’t on the back cover so she feels safe enough in rolling around in her new found money. She thinks about buying a car to celebrate but it feels wasteful, especially because they’re leaving the country as soon as Matt’s done. 

Matt gets a little too attached to his work. It’s hard for him to leave. He falls in love with a fellow do-gooder and she catches him staring off into space a lot. She lets it go until it becomes obvious that it’s impacting his day to day life and then climbs into bed with him. They only sleep if they want to now but sometimes it’s nice to lay in bed and rest after the events of the day or the week. He’s got shadows in his blue eyes though and she’s not about to let her boy hurt like this. 

“We could turn her.” She says quietly, curling around his back. He shivers and melts into her a little.

“No way.” He says regretfully, turning towards her. “Annie’s not the kind of girl who could adapt to vampire life. She wants kids and a dog and a retirement fund. She wants packed lunches and muddy soccer jerseys.” He cries a little and she thumbs at his tears. “We probably should have left a while back.” He continues. “But I just wanted to be around her a little longer.” 

He falls asleep and she starts browsing travel spots on her phone, trying to decide where to go. She doesn’t think she’s ready for Europe. It seems like a vampire hotspot and she’s just not able to tolerate anyone aside from Matt and Jack. She eventually settles on Iceland. It’s not the conventional first trip out of the United States but it looks beautiful and welcoming. Apparently, it’s the fourth happiest country in the world and the crime rate is practically nil. That usually indicates a distinct lack of supernatural creatures and if there are any then they aren’t interested in terrorizing the population. She books the tickets and then calls her agent. They’ll keep the apartment and everything in it. She has a feeling that they won’t come back anytime soon but it’ll be good to keep it. It’s the first real, stable home that they made in their new lives and someday Matt may want to remember his Anne. 

There’s a fight when he wakes up but in the end he gets on the plane and that’s all that matters. They settle into Reykjavik quite easily. They buy a lovely blue painted house and Elena sets to decorating with a vengeance. Matt mostly goes out and explores the city while she shops and they periodically go off to explore the wilds, without the fear that most mortals have. Matt invests in a high quality camera and starts experimenting with it. They hang his pictures up around the house. She encourages him to submit some to NatGeo or something but he laughs it off. “Not everyone stumbles into their passion, Elena. I’m just having a little bit of fun.”

By the time they’re ready to leave, they’ve increased their vervain tolerance to Original levels of resistance. It makes Elena a little queasy in the morning but she can live with it if it means that she’ll never be compelled into doing anything again. Matt is the first one to broach the topic. “What if we run into them again? Like I don’t want to go looking for them but what if we accidentally run into each other? What if they come looking for us?”

Elena sips at her blood thoughtfully. “I don’t think they’re looking for us. We left together so I think that, at most, they think we’re sowing some wild oats or something. And they could have seen us in New Orleans. If one of them was there, then they probably all were. But my blood is useless to an Original now and I don’t think they care whether or not we’re living out a happy human life so long as we don’t bother them. That was our friends doing.”

He makes a vaguely agreeable noise. “And Caroline? The Salvatores? Bonnie?”

Elena traces her finger around an old coffee mug ring. “Would it be awful to say that I want to kill them?” 

Matt stops washing the dishes and the kitchen fills with silence. “No.” He says at last. “No it wouldn’t be awful. Not incredibly practical though. Klaus is in love with Caroline, as much as he can feel love, and Bonnie thwarted the Originals once or twice. I don’t think it’d be wise to tangle with them. Stefan has that on and off thing going with Rebekah but so did I and I don’t really know how attached she is to him, especially given all the stuff that went on in Mystic Falls. But Damon…” He said, thoughtfully. “Damon you could probably kill.”

Elena takes another sip. “I guess you’re right. I want to kill Damon the least out of all of them so it doesn’t seem fair for him to be the only one to die.” She regretfully puts the thought away. Unbeknownst to her, Matt breathes a sigh of relief and relaxes against the counter top. He’d follow her anywhere, even to their deaths. He’d just prefer not to have to. 

 

They flounder for a bit in Iceland, confronting the idea of immortality for the first time. What do they do? What are their goals? The compulsion had hung over them like a heavy blanket and without it they don’t have any sort of guiding force pushing them into a pre-selected life path. Their ideas got subsumed under their friends visions of how their “normal” life was supposed to go and those dreams from before the compulsion seem childish now. Eventually, they leave just to feel like they’re moving and making progress.

~*~

The Philippines is where they get the idea. They run into a witch that’s fleeing from Klaus for some temper tantrum or another and both remember what Katherine was pushed into and how it ruined them. They help her out and tell her to pass word along to anyone who seems trustworthy. If someone needs to disappear, find Matt and Elena. Thwarting the Originals in close quarters had been instructive and they easily manage to hide the witch when they have a whole world to play with. 

“I think,” Matt laughs. “that vampires are Eurocentric. They’re so used to thinking of the West as being the pinnacle of civilization that they completely forget the rest of the world. It’s so ridiculous.” Their witch friend is currently living in Bombay, buried under layers of forged paperwork and false identities. 

From there, it’s a steady stream of clients. Frankly, its shocking how many people the Originals get into fights with. Even if they are on top of the food chain, it still pays to be diplomatic. An unexpected side benefit is that they get all the hot gossip, which is how they know about Hope.

They’re living in London at the moment, which serves as a convenient home base for their little witness protection program. Elena is grabbing coffee from the little café under their apartment when the hybrid approaches her. He smells sick with fear and perspiration is dotting his face. “I heard that you can make people disappear.” He says. 

She takes a sip of her latte. “Maybe.” She says nothing else. Over the years, they’ve learned that some clients deserve to have the Originals take them and they usually look exactly like the man in front of her. Also, he’s a hybrid and Elena isn’t inclined to be nice to hybrids. It's a personal failing of hers. 

“I have money.” He continues. “I just need to get off the map. I have my kid with me and I can’t leave her to Klaus’ tender mercies. After she grows up, fine. He can do what he wants. I just need a little space.”

She takes another sip and considers. Ultimately, the kid decides it for her. She doesn’t want another child caught up in the shitstorm that Klaus tends to unleash on his enemies. “Fine. Bring your kid upstairs with you. We’ll discuss pricing.”

Upstairs, it rapidly becomes obvious that something is wrong. The man is exceedingly nervous and the little girl is silent and sulky. Her resemblance to Klaus is also undeniable. They send him out to retrieve the money and any personal belongings and when he comes back they murder him and put his head in a box. Matt writes out an letter explaining the situation and they book Hope with a ticket on a private plane for tomorrow morning. 

Post-murder, Hope is unfortunately chatty. “I know who you are.” She says, entirely unprompted. “Aunt Caroline has a picture of you in her room.” Matt breathes out a swear word and Elena crushes a coffee cup. Up until this point, their business has been based in anonymity and Original laziness. They exchange panicked glances over her head and excuse themselves to the kitchen for a panicked and extremely quiet discussion Still, there’s no way that they can avoid sending Hope back. They don’t want to keep her and they definitely don’t want to kill her. The next morning, they put Hope on the plane with her box and her letter and flee London. 

~*~

It takes Klaus two years to catch up with them. Elena is sunning herself on Byron Bay when he drops down on the towel next to her. “You’ve turned into a real pain in my ass, Elena.” She startles and instinctively makes to run away, higher thinking deserting her. He cuts in front of her, she'd forgotten about his faster speed, and holds his hands out in between their bodies. “I'm not here to hurt you.” He says soothingly. There's a glint in his eyes that says he enjoys her fear, even if he isn't there to cause damage. “I want to thank you actually.”

She doesn't give a damn about his thanks and she doesn't know where Matt is. It's just occurred to her that she hasn't seen him in at least thirty minutes. Without realizing it, her breath is coming shorter and shorter and her heart is beating like a scared rabbit's. She almost feels like she's on the verge of a heart attack. Klaus smiles. “Maybe a letter would have conveyed my sentiments better.”

“Maybe it would have.” She hates her voice. It sounds thin and reedy and not at all like the person she's been becoming. Her legs wobble just briefly and she locks them. Her vision is tunneling and her terror is abjectly obvious but it's important that she stays still. That's the only thing keeping her standing, the knowledge that it would validate him to have more proof of her fear. 

“Hope is very important to me.” He is saying. “And she's part of a very small cadre of people I care about. So thank you for doing the right thing and returning her to me. It's gratifying to know that at least some people still have the proper respect for my family.” He doesn't really mean his family. He just means him. 

He pats her shoulder. “You did me a favor. Let me know when I can repay it.” Then he leaves her. His feet crunch in the sand and she knows he's being deliberately slow and loud. He's walking away, after having asserted his power. He doesn't have anything to fear. Meanwhile, she doesn't think she can move. 

Time goes by. She hears other footsteps crunching down the beach and this time Matt laces his fingers between hers. They both watch the ocean. Eventually, Matt says it. “I really, really wish I could kill that family.” Elena lets out a long, shaky breath and lets the tears come.


End file.
